The arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and previous Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, released by the International Criminal Court (ICC), haveactually brought back not-so-fond memories to numerous Kenyans. More than a years ago, then Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy – present President William Ruto – endedupbeing the veryfirst incumbent heads of state or federalgovernment to infact face an ICC trial, havingactually been arraigned before they got into workplace.
However, while both Kenyatta and Ruto selected to worktogether with the court – at least on the face of it – and participatedin their trials, hence preventing the requirement for an arrest warrant, it is notlikely that Netanyahu and Gallant will be taking a journey to The Hague any time quickly.
Kenyatta and Ruto were implicated of being accountable for the violence that followed the nation’s contested 2007 election, in which more than 1,300 individuals lost their lives. The 2 hadactually been on opposing sides of the dispute and were declared to haveactually arranged and moneyed “tribal” militia to bring out killings.
To date, just a handful of individuals have ever been prosecuted for the murders, rapes and mutilation that led to the forcible displacement of 660,000 individuals, and it was just after the Kenyan state showed reluctant to act that the ICC stepped in.
Similarly, when he used for warrants for the Israeli leaders in May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan – who coincidentally headed Ruto’s defence group – likewise showed he would be delighted to delay prosecution if Israel’s justice system reveals any desire to take action versus Netanyahu and Gallant and “engage in independent and objective judicial procedures that do not guard presumes and are not a sham”.
The ICC judges have now concurred that there are affordable premises to think the 2 bear wrongdoer duty for the numerous criminalactivities devoted by Israel versus the Palestinians throughout its continuous genocidal attack on Gaza. With an authorities death toll of more than 44,000, Gaza hasactually experienced murders, rapes and displacement on a huge scale, as well as mass hunger, and the purposeful targeting of schools, healthcarefacilities and locations of praise.
Many have grumbled about the seven-month-long hold-up in the ICC judges providing the arrest warrants, however Kenyans had to wait for 2 years to have the ICC districtattorney sendout a demand for an examination and then another 5 months for the court to authorize it. It then took another 12 months for the real indictment of particular people – 6 of them – to be handed down.
Thus, by contrast, the Palestine cases have moved much quicker.
Among the factors for the hold-up in the Palestine case were the many briefs tough the court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the accusations. There was likewise a lot of pressure put